Jimmy Stewart. ‘Jimmy’ Stewart: Unlikely Hollywood star enjoyed decades-long career in a variety of genres The personification of all-American aw-shucksiness – of the sort you find only in bad movies…
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Lena Horne. Lena Horne movies: Velvety-voiced singer generally relegated to specialty numbers during heyday of the Hollywood musical Had things been different, it’s anybody’s guess whether or not three-time Grammy…
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Melvyn Douglas. Melvyn Douglas: From suave leading man to Hollywood’s top female stars to first-rate dramatic actor Unlike Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, or Gary Cooper, Melvyn Douglas couldn’t exactly be…
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Hal Prince Broadway musical legend: Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber collaborator + remembering subversive cult classic.
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Independence Day movies: Exuberant all-white all-Iowan marching band + lovely and talented Joan Leslie + racist British imperialism salute.
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4th of July Movies: From our dystopian present to John Paul Jones + Benedict Arnold and other complex American Revolutionary War figures.
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Howard Keel height of career as a result of sleeper blockbuster that helped to revive his Hollywood standing after three consecutive MGM musical flops.
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Jane Powell. Jane Powell movies: MGM actress in musicals of the 1940s & 1950s Jane Powell, the youthful star of a series of lighthearted Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer color comedy-musicals of the 1940s…
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Howard Keel musicals: Box office ups and downs emblematic of genre’s erratic appeal in 1950s Hollywood as a result of dramatic socio-economic changes.
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Howard Keel: Actor-singer embodied brawny American manliness in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals of the 1950s such as Annie Get Your Gun + Show Boat.
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Machiko Kyo. Japanese star Machiko Kyo was seen in several of the most widely admired cinema classics of the 1950s, including Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu, and Teinosuke Kinugasa’s…
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Bibi Andersson in The Seventh Seal. Remembering international arthouse cinema icon Bibi Andersson: Frequent Ingmar Bergman actress & four-time ‘Swedish Oscar’ winner International arthouse cinema icon Bibi Andersson, a blonde…
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Kay Francis. Kay Francis revisited: One of the brightest & most underrated Hollywood stars of the 1930s Kay Francis is the star of the day (April 9) on Turner Classic…
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Movie Buff: Author Anthony Slide discusses neglected area in film history – the humorous and/or tragic lives and times of film fanatics + collectors.
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Jimmy Edwards: Conservative gay British comic known for spanking schoolboys with his cane in TV series + later outed is discussed with biographer Slide.
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“Movies” or…? Quo Vadis: One of the first feature films ever made, Enrico Guazzoni’s Italian epic came out in 1913, going on to become a global sensation. Should American “moving…
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‘Under the Volcano’ screening: John Huston’s ‘quality’ comeback starring daring Albert Finney As part of its John Huston film series, the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be presenting the…
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Ronald Colman: Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month in two major 1930s classics Updated: Turner Classic Movies’ July 2017 Star of the Month is Ronald Colman, one of the…
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Crime Novel classic remembered: Everywoman heroine with typical bourgeois values but an unusual black housekeeper ally + straight and gay movie versions.
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Antihero Ricardo Cortez: Best movies and roles during Pre-Code and silent eras + Oscar-Winning Cinematographer brother Stanley Cortez.
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How to Be a Latin Lover: Ricardo Cortez leading ladies and marriage to drug-addicted Hollywood star plus directing Dalton Trumbo socially conscious drama.
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Latin Lover Ricardo Cortez was 2nd Valentino and 1st (and best) Sam Spade: Interview with biographer re: actor who worked with Griffith, DeMille + Capra.
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(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you’re…
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Fourth of July movies: A few recommended titles that should help you temporarily escape current global madness Two thousand and seventeen has been a weirder-than-usual year on the already pretty…
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(See previous post: “Gay Pride Movie Series Comes to a Close: From Heterosexual Angst to Indonesian Coup.”) Ken Russell’s Valentino (1977) is notable for starring ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as…
Miriam Hopkins interview with biographer Allan Ellenberger: Talented + mercurial actress was ‘Hollywood Rebel’ or ‘Magnificent Bitch’?
MGM musicals box office struggle: Howard Keel Hollywood woes included 2 prestigious star vehicles that *should* have succeeded. Could his career be saved?
Lillian Gish Bowling Green University Theatre gone: The outraged ones vs iconic actress seen in D.W. Griffith’s landmark (racist) epic The Birth of a Nation.
John Boles. Actor & singer John Boles remembered On March 4, Turner Classic Movies is remembering actor-singer John Boles, a name that even the majority of film historians and connoisseurs…
Updated: Following a couple of Julie London Westerns*, Turner Classic Movies will return to its July 2017 Star of the Month presentations. This evening, July 27, Ronald Colman can be…
Roy Rogers Under Western Stars: Subversive Singing Cowboy Western still relevant in this age of special interests in government and climate change threat.
Ricardo Cortez: Latin Lover from Manhattan Jewish family was the perfect Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Paramount’s threat to Rudolph Valentino.